Get over with 1411 ...

This is serious. This is not a time-pass post for me. First and foremost, please update the R.O.T. (Remember Only Temporarily) registries in your hippocampus. Now, for those, who do not feel like doing a Google search at this moment and above all, are thinking what-the-hell hippocampus is; well, it is the part of brain which stockpiles the short-term memory, in layman’s lingo. I do hope you are adequately gifted to figure out that this post is about the ‘Save Tiger Campaign’ and the numeral, burning in the air akin the devil’s number, 1411. I refer to your short-term memory here because none of us gives a shit about conservation stuff seconds after the ‘advertisement’ video by Aircel, of a cute and helpless cub, who is shown wailing for her mother to come back, is over because you just want to know which movie is going to be aired next. Maybe, she isn’t.

The famed count of 1411 tigers, strictly speaking Royal Bengal Tigers, isn’t so anymore. Yeah, true, it was anyway a loose estimate put up after the monitoring surveys by the Wildlife Institute of India in association with NTCA, Govt. of India. But, my dear it was back in the murky 2008, the year of ominous Mumbai attack. Of course you remember that, don’t you? The ad is powerful; it catches the nerve of our emotions. But, isn’t everything temporary.

At least 127 tigers died in 2008 and 2009. In addition, 11 have been reported dead after the start of 2010. Some taken away by mother nature, some lost their battle with poachers and some thanks to the entity which constitutes ‘us’ and ‘the government’. I’ll come to the role of last group later. The believers in statistics can help me with the result here.

1273.

Still, it is an unauthenticated figure. I cannot tell, maybe no one can. ‘They’ printed 3642 in 2003. ‘They’ advertised it to be 1411 in 2010. At this rate, my kid wouldn’t be able to tell what a tiger was. Whom am I blaming it on, who are ‘they’? This is the time to reverse back a few lines.

The ad. The intention was good. The idea was great. But. It was incomplete. The real deal was never shot. The solution was never aired. Everybody knows and blah-blahs about the government’s fault. Take a note of ours. We, the most intelligent species ever identified to exist in the whole of universe till now, are clueless about what to do.

Seriously, as an adolescent, what can I do? I have no guns to fight the hunters; no authority to make death-laws against the poachers. Even not enough influence and skill to start another campaign. Some ask me to speak up, support them on facebook and twitter; some ask for money. I blog about it; this person questions me how by becoming fan of ‘Save Tiger’ pages and writing blog would tigers in India be saved. I have no answer. At least you won’t be saving a life by questioning others, you asshole.

I don’t have the answers. I am writing this to find the solution myself. I can only know that the government plans to spend $153 million to create new tiger reserves to give the poor endangered species some territory to roam about, another $13 million to give birth to a new ranger force to protect the big cats and what not. Where do I come in the picture? I still don’t have the answer. I concur that I also can give any solution.

On a lighter note, I can surely jot down things that I shouldn’t do:-

• Take it as a joke and make fun pages like ‘Eat Parle-G … don’t eat Tiger … only 1411 left!’ Please, humble request, don’t make a gag out of it.

• I am also not an ‘asshole’ who would resent the idea of joining pages etc. but please don’t just click on the Like button and then head back to your home page in a snap. Try to gather some knowledge which might actually help in the future.

• Blame it all on the government, while stuffing your mouth with a burger, just to carry out a conversation and look informed. Be informed instead; get to know some facts. On a still lighter note, I would like to share this comment I came across online:-

"Send all politicians to the jungle for poachers to finish them off and bring all tigers to the parliament to make some brave decisions!"

• To proclaim that this was the fault of the existing generation that they didn’t do a thing about it. I seriously hope you would be able to deliver something in your time, so that the next generation wouldn’t put the guilt on you!

1273.

I just pray here that by the time you see the period at the end of this sentence, the holy count has not clicked 1272

P.S.:

Please go through the following links to get a feel:-

http://www.saveourtigers.com/JoinTheRoar.php

http://saveourtigers.com/blog/

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/do/ecco.py/view_item?listid=1&listcatid=883&listitemid=6888&live=0#cr

Are you 'hi' ...?

No, I didn’t make a mistake with my title. I am sure I did not mean ‘How are you’ and neither do I want to make it catchy by having a resemblance with ‘Are you high’. Anyway, it does have one. I suppose I can’t help the facts. Move on, man. So okie dokie, this post is on my common observation about the usage of basically the two words ‘hi’ and ‘hello’.

Oh, I forgot to greet you myself. Hi. Or should it be Hello? Which is more appropriate? Well, we all, most of the time, ignore the formal salutations and just go with ‘Wassup’ and ‘Howdy’ etc. To give the impression of being cool, perhaps (And if we are too good friends, we always commence with beautiful cuss words; portrays our love you see :P). This is mostly the case of the “online chats”. We live in the believe that we are keeping in touch with these simulated conversations. Anyways, I am distracting from the topic in hand; more on the online life-system in some parallel universe. Do I believe in parallel universes? That also in some other post. :D

An uninteresting post would be like this: ‘Hello’ is a more formal way of greeting than ‘Hi’. Or a more boring English grammar class version: ‘Hi’ is more American than British. Sorry to say, but the rest of the post wouldn’t be any remarkable in any way. It’s a simple journey where we start with a ‘hello’ and try to progress  towards the genuine ‘hi’ and, if the person is of opposite sex, preferably settle there only. I have already mentioned the case of being very friendly.

So, for the fact, Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the most useless thing for me, decreed that the correct way to greet someone over  the phone should be ‘Ahoy hoy’. A matter-of-fact in favor of my repulsion towards phone: Bell considered his most famous invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study. Anyway, in came Thomas Edison, who is credited with the use of ‘Hello’ as a telephone greeting. I don’t know what would be the appropriate tone to say ‘Hi’ while receiving an unidentified phone call.

Anyhow, I have always been a ‘Hello’ person and always regret for not being ‘high’, especially the time when a cute girl says sweetly to me, “Hiiiiii” and the only word that comes out of my fucking mouth is "Hello"; blast me. So, am I shy of the opposite sex? Catch "Are you shy or high" in some other post.

So, are you ‘Hi’? Now it’s sounding to me like, are you game or are you gay? More on it, you know where!

When you are waiting ...

So buddies, it’s time to take a flush, down the unconscious memory lanes and summon up some moments. When was the last moment in time, when you stood in some place, for some purpose, alone; and I’m talking of such a length of time which made you realize that you ‘are’ alone?

Maybe for movies, maybe at a marriage, maybe in a party or even while waiting for your date! I am talking about a situation where you just stood and stood, with no one by your side, and you just stood and time walked past.

A very boring freeze-time it may be while waiting; but as time eats you from inside, it triggers some make-believe organ system deep inside you. Or, as I believe, it does. The secretion is mysterious in nature, one of its kinds, unknown to many. See, this is the time which can help you decide the person you want to be with.

The first person you urge to call at this moment is ‘the’ person you really want to be with and not, by any chance, the date you are standing and passing time for. After standing for a period of time, when your knees have started hurting and you have used every permutation and combination of cuss words; the name which bolts to your mind as a ‘Yahoo! moment’, as in a Eureka moment, is the name you have been searching for.

I am, at no point, claiming your Yahoo! person to be a lover only. It might your long lost friend you haven’t had a word with since ages. If you recognize a sign like this somewhere, that is the time to reflect on your option to connect with ‘the’ person again.

P.S.: During an utter useless time like this, you can just concentrate, sit down instead of ‘just stood and stood’ and utilize the time to write a new blog entry like this one. :D

How I Met You Robin ...

Greetings to you, random blog readers! Others, who already had a sneak-peak at my previous blog entries, might know that I am into web comics and also have a tiny little knowledge of Adobe Photoshop. So, I had this crazy idea to merge these two interests and create a masterpiece. He he, flattering myself I am. :D

What I could manage is nowhere near a single comic strip, but I sure had a fun time making it. I hope you'll like it.

So, basically it's like a story; it should be like that only, I suppose. So, here I have combined my two loves: Counter strike (he he) and ... and ... Cobie Smulders (I assume you would have guessed this by now because of the title; it was a give-away :P).


So, here it goes :-


                            Chapter I : Pilot

Nothing much to explain about this one. Just a quick mention; please find the subtle reference to computer programming in it. That thing basically carries the pun here. So straight-forward I am na! :D






                     
                                                                                                                                          Chapter II : The Beginning of the End
                                          

Just then, came this noob sweet_teddy_bear to divert me from my perseverance. Yeah, you must have noticed, I am the legend gHOST`rIDER! Mind the case please! :D

                     Chapter III : The Angel Ascends

The story takes a deadly turn. Suddenly, the map becomes hot. The monotonous sound of the beer bottles, being banged on the table, is replaced by the awe chattering of the men. The awesome angel has arrived amongst us!








                                                                                                                                                                             Chapter IV : The Fellowship of Hotness

The battle for the One begins. The forces are summoned; loyalties are put on test; the secrets are exposed in the wild! Okay, this one was too dramatized. :)








                                                       Chapter V : Destiny Awaits

Ouch, that was a little 'heart-breaking'. Ha ha ha ha! :D The skilled gHOST`rIDER scores over the dark sweet_teddy_bear and now his prize, his destiny, awaits him.








                                                                                                        Chapter VI : The Realization

P.S. :-

1. Obviously, all the background images have been taken over from the internet. I thank you all the creators of the basic images and I hope you will not sue me over the copyright issues. This post is just intended to attain pure joy and I am not even making any money out of this poorly running blog. Blah, blah!
2. Cobie Smulders is just meant to symbolize other beautiful things in my life. Anyway, Cobie, you are so hot! I was so sad when I read that you're getting married. :(
3. If any picture is not readable, you can always click on it to get the full resolution picture. :)
4. And last, please tell me how stupid this try was!

And so it ended ...

Konnichiwa to all who have accidently set foot here on my blog. Anyway, konnichiwa is Hello in Japanese. I’m just showing off my Google search talent. Yokoso watasino sekai ni. Flying my own kite, you see! :D I’ll leave this as an exercise for you to google out. Notice how google has actually become a verb!

Okay, it’s time to change the happy-emoticon-mood and get into the depressed mode to be able to write an entry here. We finally move to this blog entry’s subject matter. The thought process began when a very good friend of mine asked me how much I had experienced out of the expectations of my first year in college. The question left me in deep state of coma and, perhaps, embarrassed also to some extent. The description of his eventful and a-hell-lot-of-first-time-in-life experiences had preceded this moment of truth. I was blank. I did not have a flip lifeline here to change the question.

I weighed my options. Should I lower my so-thought-off expectations and compare or should I brag about stuffs that I thought had happened in some imaginary parallel universe? I got out by my frequent excuse of “nothing-much-I-have-to-say” and just a plain “I don’t remember much about expectations but it was a good yaar”. There isn’t even a blah blah blah to follow because no more words I had said further.

The truth. Man, I did nothing. Not a single worthwhile thing I did, nothing out-of-the-blue happened to me, not a fucking mentionable stuff happened. Starting from the answer to the very first question of every guy I meet outside my college; “Koi girlfriend patai kya?” Dude, hell no! I came here with rotten luck and it will probably suck more. You can laugh some more, Oh non-existing Lord.

I had my dumb ass in front of my third-grade laptop whole of the year playing counter strike. I don’t disgust the fact that I spent almost all my ‘time-of-your-life’ time playing CS because involving in it was probably the only way which could shut my mind from other heartbreaking things in my life. Still, random people joined my server at 2 in the morning and humiliated my game-play.

I could not manage to play decent guitar and just had it ready to distribute for the greater good of the society there and neither could I master petty things like Photoshop (no offences to the god software). I did not even become a decent ‘ghot’ to perform well in my academics. What little I have to boast about, would probably be my photography. And here comes my laziness, to pick up my camera and get my fat ass out in the sun, to ruin the party.

There’s probably more to disgust myself but I suppose this ending would do for me. Apparently, I mastered the art of being a loser. You wrote a very apt song for me 3 Doors Down.

I am happy I realized one thing. I have social anxiety or social phobia as you may call. Not the whole of the disorder; just one trait: the fear of expression.

P.S.: No part of this is intentionally pointed towards you my “very good friend”. I would just like to thank you for giving me a new blog entry.

Romance by numbers ...

Yeah baby, it's time to get excited. Australian statisticians at University of NSW School of Mathematics and Statistics have given birth to this new formula which would probably give relief to the deprived young people (like me) and heart-pounding worries to the 'marriage-age' people! Yes, they have developed a sequence of calculations which would predict your optimal proposal age.

The claim is of a success rate of 40 percent which looks pretty optimistic to a poor desperate chap like me! Here the link to the news article in The Times of India: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/relationships/man-woman/Formula-to-predict-time-for-love-marriage/articleshow/5560031.cms. It was published on 11th February, 2010 just few days before lovers' day.

So, the formula goes like this.

1. Choose the oldest age by which you would like to get married. Call it 'n'. My case was 32 years. Hmm! :)
2. Decide the minimum age at which you'll start to consider a potential spouse. Assign it 'p'. I am kinda desperate; so I was ready by 18. :P
3. Subtract 'p' from 'n' and multiply by 0.368. My result came (32-18) * 0.368 = 5.152.
4. Add this to your minimum age 'p'. So my lucky age came as 23 years and 55 days!

So, whatever you say; you all are the genius minds. I'll be waiting for my day. It's surely time to fall in love with maths now!

In love with maths, huh???

Okay, this ain't my own creation but isn't this the funda of every 'not another random blog' to do blah blah about random stuffs! I surely cannot manage to keep my blog running without this external help. I also just have to talk shit about things once in a while.

Okay, this one here is one of my favorites from the xkcd web-comics collection. I am new to the concept of web-comics and sometimes end up clueless about what some of the nerd one-liners mean. But, it's sure fun and a great time pass to go from one random strip to another.

Okay, so here's the deal. This one has been titled 'Useless' and has the permanent link: http://www.xkcd.com/55/. The tag-line on the comic reads as, "Even the identity matrix doesn't work normally". Now here we are left to ponder what this could possibly mean. Obviously, nobody wants you to go and read the chapter on Matrices and Determinants. Yeah, right, these tags are meant to be funny and sarcastic. :P

Oh well, love is a strange thing. Yeah, now you come to the point bitch! It is a beautiful thing and blah blah what all; no doubts. Okay, this reminds me of a dialouge which a got hold of from an episode of the TV series, Californication (Well, I would recommend every kiddo out there to watch it ... but I'll leave this discussion to some other blog entry perhaps :P).

Person 1: "When will this heart stop hurting?"

Person 2: (sarcastically) "Well, if you are lucky, then never!"

Being in love with someone teaches you life-time of things (can't think of a better word for now :D). Even listening to others' love stories gives you those sweet feelings of togetherness. Can't tell about you, but I sure am a newbie in this experience, so everything looks all stupid and serious to me at the same time.

Hope, you all got to this end part to see what the post was all about! :)

P.S.: I would suggest people with enthusiasm to blog and read blogs to get into web-comics. Just follow a site on a daily basis. First step would be to just open it and start by clicking on Random and voila there you go!

I'm looking through you ...

So, this would be my second photo- blog entry. This was clicked by me at a random clicking session of our Photog Club @ BITS, Pilani.

This picture is actually the result of cropping of the original capture, which is now giving this beautiful macro look. The thing that came to my rescue in the cropping process was that the fly was actually in quite good focus. Plus, the depth of field was also very less which is showing in form of the apparent out-of-focus background.

The technical specifications of the original composition were as follows:

Camera model: Nikon D80

F-stop: f/5.6

Exposure time: 1/50 sec.

ISO: 100

Focal length: 135 mm

This much would be all for this blog entry. Here, I would like to give random suggestions for newbies like me interested in photography, especially the technique used here of macro photography.

• Almost never use flash for your compositions. Flash should be only used in case you are clicking gen pictures of your family etc. Flash is basically of any use to you in case of studio photography.
• Keep a low F-stop number for macro pictures. This would give you the less depth of field as in case of the above photo.
• Can't think of much suggestions for now (:D). So I would just give you the last advise for now. START CLICKING IN MANUAL MODE WITH MANUAL FOCUS. That will make you grow as a photographer. :)

And then, there you flew away into the dark ...

For a long time, I was having this idea of converting my so-called 'blog' (with no new creations :D) into a photo-blog so that at least I can keep some posts ticking on. So, in this series, this is my first and the latest capture.

Clearly (I hope so :P) it's a parrot's silhouette, taken in one of the few quiet streets of our college campus BITS, Pilani. I was on a clicking spree with my mate on a dead-in-the-heat evening. The picture has obviously gone under the cruel tools of my Adobe Photoshop CS3. :)

So, let me give some technical specifications of the picture. The camera used was Nikon D80 with Nikkor telephoto lens. F-stop number was f/5.6 with exposure time 1/640 sec. suited for the sunny evening. ISO number was 125, focal length was 300mm. and I clicked the picture in raw(.NEF) format. For editing, I used basic levels, curves and exposure and mainly, adjusting the background sky to sooth your beautiful eyes!

I guess this much would be enough to describe because I guess most of you did not reach to even this part before dozing off in your own world. :D

Goodbye for now and I wish nobody of us suffers from writer's block or perhaps photographer's block if there's even a term like this! :)

Everyone's comments are sincerely most welcome because I am clearly a noob at this stuff and want to grow into something substantial. So, please feel free to express anything about this post.

P.S.: Those of you interested in photography, who would like to see more of and about silhouettes, should check out the following links.

http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-photograph-silhouettes

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=silhouette

I Wish I Had a Heart of Glass ...

Reading to all the “Letters To God” by kids all over the world on the web, I was caught up in a pour out of thoughts. Glancing through their desires, fantasies, complaints and requests to the Lord, I thought, “Hey dude! So lucky they are. They get their wishes to be fulfilled by the Lord himself. Can’t I too wish something from the God (if he exists)? I am also just nineteen years old; just about ten years older than these kids who are wishing for good marks in the unit tests or a new computer as a birthday present. Wouldn’t he fulfill my wishes also? Why not? Am I not a human; don’t I have feelings; can’t I wish? Yes, there is nothing wrong about that. So let’s try!” So maybe this is my “Letter To God”. A letter to God by a nineteen year old, imagining he is also a small kid and that God would fulfill his wishes believing him.

Okay, coming straight to the point, I wish … hmm … I wish … umm … I ask for … hmm …??? “Let me think for a while (Actually at the moment, I am thinking only; notice the italics part … yes you seem intelligent … the italics means thinking part only … good there was no need of me to tell you this!).” Maybe I must have been thinking for a long time because when I came to my senses, I found God standing in front of me. Maybe he had listened to my call. Maybe he had come to fulfill my wishes only.

So, here was God standing in my court. Or was it the other way round; had I come to God’s court today? Maybe … maybe not. Whatever it may have been, God asked me, “So, what do wish, O human!” I thought for a little more, “Ya … hmm … this should be perfect!” I cleared my throat and started, “Well I don’t know exactly what to wish because I can’t explain it in words. Words do not convey thoughts very well. As thoughts are expressed, they always become a little diverse immediately as words come out, a little distorted, a little foolish! You are the almighty. You would surely know what is in my heart.” “You seem to be a very intelligent human to me to have worked out on this mystery,” God replied to me and I stood there filling my chest with air of pride! “Still do tell me with your own voice your wish.”

“I wish … I wish I had … umm … I had a heart of glass,” I said summoning all my strength. “I surely made it sound stupid!” God said, “O human, why do you ask for such a strange wish? Why so would you like to exchange your beautiful human heart for a glass one?” “Aah! I knew this question would come. That’s why I was thinking for so long as I am now.”

“Let me make my full wish and then maybe, O Higher Law, you’ll get your answer yourself. I wish I had a heart of glass, so that people, who break it, would also be pricked by the pieces of my heart which belong to them and that they would also suffer and bleed with me! “Isn’t it a nice wish … a tit for tat!”

God sighed and replied after a little judgment, “O human! I thought you were an intelligent species and better gifted than your kin. But I think I have been mistaken. You don’t understand it at all. This is not to hurt others if they accidently hurt you. There are many things that you may never appreciate. Water continuously flows, yet it always remains there only; who can understand it! There are some things that you must always bear. You cannot change the colour of your shadow, whether you go into a monochromatic light or a coloured one! Okay, answer my question. Which is the emotion that you fear the most?”

“How on the earth does it concern with my wish?” Maybe this time, I had thought a little louder because the God seemed to be looking at me with a slight rage. I quickly gathered my wits and thought for the connection. Feelings no better, I searched for the answer within me. “Okay … I think it’s … umm … yes … its love!”

“Again you prove that you are not as wise as I suppose I made you. The answer to every problem lies in its problem only. The answer is fear; it is fear that any human fears the most!”

“O Higher Power, I am no match to you. I have only a humble request that you grant my plea. Please do this for me. I would always keep you in my mind and heart. I will tell the whole world of your good deeds. I will build a temple in your praise.”

“What would be the difference between God and humans, if I too, could be pleased by your elfin offerings and petite pleasing. Why do you have these false expectations from me? And what great offering would you give by keeping me in your heart when your heart would be of glass that you would wish to break every second for people to get hurt. Can you reply, O small human?”

Maybe it had been a magic or maybe the God had given his judgment because I was starting to feel a knot of shame inside my guts. I realized how mistaken I was. I fell down on my knees as I felt my strength and my pride draining out of my legs. I cried, “O Almighty, please forgive me for my blindness. How foolish had I become! I have realized that it was wrong on my part to have such a wish. Please grant me your blessings and let me repent for my mistake.”

Maybe this was all a dream because I do not remember how God looked. Maybe it is just a “Letter To God”. Whatever it maybe … sometimes … you just leave it to God!